Every day I become a little less human
by The Silica Pen
Summary: Someone resurfaces from Topher's past causeing him to leave the dollhouse to find her, but what will he do when confrounted by his life before Rosom? AU. Updates infrequent.
1. Chapter 1

"So what happens after this 'treatment' huh? You just take me back to jail?" The tall boy had complained all the way from Washington and it was starting to bug his handler.

Topher looked up momentarily as they exited the lift and then returned to his work getting the chair ready for the boy he would have called evil when he was younger. These days he had learned that all humans were ugly; some just covered it up better. "That's one way of putting it." He said with a sigh.

The boy's handler made him sit in the large chair in the middle of the room and it leaned back like a dentist's chair. There was a whir as the machinery came to life and he screamed in pain before a deathly quiet filled the small room, broken only by the sound of the chair rising back up.

Golf's eyes opened and he sat up. "Did I fall asleep?"

"For a little while." Topher replied

"Shall I go now?"

"If you like." He got up and wandered out the door of the imprint room.

"After that long term engagement I need some down time, see you around Topher." Topher nodded and then moved next door into his office where he slumped down at his desk like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His assistant, Ivy, looked at him and sighed. He had been like this for the last month; it was almost as if he had been broken by Alpha's return. When he wasn't working he would just sit and stare out the window of the office; looking down at the actives going about their daily life.

Ivy thought she had a way to snap him out of it but it was the matter of pulling it off that was troubling her.

The next day the pair of them were getting ready for the first imprint of the day, Ivy looked up and smiled at the four people that entered. "Ah Echo and X-ray together again, you two keep getting paired up together don't you." She glanced back at her boss and he hardly reacted as usual.

Echo broke the silence that had settled in. "I like X-ray, he's nice."

"And I like Echo too."

"Yeah, yeah a great big happy family. First up I'll take X-ray" Ivy recoiled from the anger in the head programmer's voice. She quietly slipped out of the room as X-ray was lowered into the chair.

She turned to the blonde girl sat on the sofa. Foxtrot was Ivy's go to girl for this imprint even if Topher had no preference. He had imprinted an active with this girl every year for one day but it was a different one every time, as if he was trying to find the perfect look for her.

"Is it time yet?" she stood up and stretched. Ivy had first activated her a year ago and the two of them had become friends, she was always OK with being imprinted whenever Ivy needed to talk.

"No not yet, 10 minutes." What Topher need right now was some time with the person he was closest to.

The two of them sat down next to each other in silence watching over the balcony as the dolls ambled around downstairs and a phone started to ring. The ring stoped as Topher picked it up; there were a few moments of silence before he yelled. "Ivy get in here now!"

"W-what's up Topher?" She had never heard such urgency and violence in his voice before.

"I need an active, any active." He was running around franticly connecting wires from the walls to the chair as Ivy had seen him do many times before; he was getting ready for the special imprint for some reason. "Foxtrot! You'll do get here." He yelled as he saw the active standing in the doorway. She did as he said and walked forwards.

"B-but wait a m-minute." Foxtrot was already imprinted so this would do no good; the special nature of this personality might break the chair if Topher tried to double it up.

Topher turned and struck out, knocking Ivy to the floor clutching her cheek, more in shook than in pain but he ignored it and carried on working regardless. "No Ivy this has to..."

"Chris, stop." The name hung in the air and caused everyone to freeze. She hadn't needed to speak much above a whisper and all attention was on Foxtrot. "Ivy said she activated me to cure your depression but this is something different. Do you even see what you're doing? You don't have enough friends that you can afford to hurt them. What was on the other end of that phone call that made you act like this?"

He had backed away when she started speaking and then looked from his hand to Ivy. A look of horror flitted over his face followed by recognition. "A-Alex?"

"Yes Topher, now tell me what's wrong?"

"It's time. They found her."

* * *

Although it doesn't show it yet this fic crosses over with my Avatar fic that I'm writing at the same time. The plot merges about half way through. I'm gonna be posting the chapters together i.e. chapter 1 of both will go up at about the same time. Both stories are part of the silicaverse, see my profile for details.

That's Sam from twilight at the start and if you read my other story 'we are nothing if not human' you will see what he did to get put in jail.

Alex isn't a fan character BTW it's just a name me and my beta came up with for the imprint put into Sierra in episode 6 (the one Topher uses every birthday so he has someone to spend it with.)

This was planed out before season 2 aired so mostly it will follow what we knew from the first season but some of revelations will make their way in.


	2. Chapter 2

Topher, Ivy and Alex were stood in silence, the imprint chair between them. "So Ivy, how long have you been imprinting actives with Alex here?" Ivy spluttered and started to avoid the question. "Don't pretend you don't know what I mean and answer the question." Topher wasn't yelling or anything now, just sort of sighing his words out. Ivy shied away almost more scared of him than when he was angry.

"About a year now." Ivy was staring at her feet and mumbling.

Alex moved over and put a hand on Topher's shoulder; he jumped a little before giving a fleeting smile. She turned to Ivy, "I suppose you're going to want to know who it is we're chasing."

Ivy looked up frantically and shook her head. "Not really. You guys are the only people I can call friends but I can't go with you, I have to stay here. If you want to keep this a secret then that's fine by me." She knew she was right; someone had to run the imprint room if Topher was going to up and leave. Maybe if he would wait for a replacement to be found but he was in a rush and staying here was the only thing she could do for him.

Topher walked to the back of the room. "Why do you both seem to think Ivy is my friend?"

Ivy stepped forwards to try and say something but Alex moved to stop her and whispered in her ear. "Come on. Let's leave him alone, he's probably had some bad memories stirred up by all this." The two girls walked out on to the walk way overlooking the main floor. They watched the actives wandering around aimlessly for a while in silence. It was a long time before Alex spoke up. "We can go start getting a vehicle ready." Ivy nodded and followed Alex down to the floor so they could get around to the office without passing through the room Topher was still in.

As they passed an area one of the dolls walked up to the pair and handed Alex a painting she had made. It depicted an island, or at least that's what it looked like, with the word macros scrawled across the top. This made no sense to either of them but the doll was looking at them expectantly. "Very good Yankee, is this for me or did you want to keep it?"

Yankee smiled and said, "It's for you Ivy. I was going to paint you but I couldn't make it pretty enough."

"Thank you." Ivy said nervously; Yankee just smiled again and wandered off towards the pool. The two girls moved on and into the office. "So what do you guys need?" Ivy said as she put the picture on the front of the fridge.

Alex opened a cupboard to reveal a couple of suitcases. "Topher has some stuff all ready for the situation. He's been preparing for a long time." She passed one case to Ivy and picked up the other before making their way to the vehicle bay upstairs via the lift.

The ride was quiet for a while until Ivy spoke up. "Alex? About Topher..."

Alex shifted her weight a bit before answering. "It's a long story but all you need to know is that his mother wasn't the best of people and it wasn't until she did something that hurt me that he realised. We left her behind and ran; Topher never forgave himself for leaving someone like that out there in the world so finding her was part of the deal when he joined Rossom." Her voice was tinged deep sadness but it didn't appear to be for herself.

A look of confusion passed over Ivy's face, "Wait, you said it hurt you. But I thought you were artificial, no offence. When I first found your brain scans they were buried in so much code that changed how the chair works but they looked..." her voice faded out.

Alex stared into space for a moment before speaking; her voice filled with even more sadness before. "I'm one hundred percent human. The extra code is because my body is onsite, among other things." Ivy thought over the code she had first seen a year ago.

The pair of them loaded up on of the black cars with tinted windows that filled the below ground parking lot of the dollhouse. Ivy was a bit tired but Alex looked exhausted almost to the point collapse. "Well I think we are done here, I'll go get Topher."

When Ivy got back downstairs she couldn't find Topher anywhere, the only place she hadn't checked yet was his room just off the office. Before she left, Yankee caught her eye through the window and waved at her; Ivy returned before muttering, "First job as the new imprinter is taking a look at her attachment to me."

As Ivy entered Topher's room she heard his voice from a second door on the other side. "I promise to make you feel special and right and new one last time." Before she could reach the door to see who he was talking to; he stepped through and saw her. "Oh. Ivy." He stepped forwards and put his arm on her shoulder. "I'm sorry about earlier. Don't worry about taking over for me, you have the heart that this job needs and I believe in you. I decided long ago that I would never have kids but sometimes I think you are as close as I will ever get to having a child and I'm proud of the woman I've watched you becoming." Ivy nodded; she had miles to go but one day she would be that woman he could be proud of.

* * *

over half a year since chapter one I know but here is chapter two. Also do check out the other half of the story in 'there is no black and white, only shades of grey' it doesn't cross over yet but it is important.

This chapter contains 3 Chekhov's Guns and 1 Chekhov's Gunman. If you don't know that's something or someone that gets a lot more important later in the story. Also if you read both this and shades of grey and give it some thought you might be able to work out the big reveal early. Oh and arc words as well.

By the way Ivy won't be appearing much if at all for the rest of the main story but I plan on a side story telling what she was doing while Topher and Alex are away.


End file.
